Repulsion
She also seems to like rape victim type characters, with Jacques Démy’s films being the big exception. “Les parapluies de Cherbourg” is the only film in which she was the protagonist and played a normal woman. I understand though. Playing these very scared or crazy women enables her to show off her acting talent, Isabelle Huppert seems to be doing the same thing. The whole film works because La Deneuve is the damsel in distress here, except nobody comes to her rescue. The film doesn’t really have any specialties and it’s a little bit obscure. Even people who know Polanski’s work a little bit might not necessarily watch the film, but those people who do watch the film tend to be those who are usually interested in this type of film – slightly artsy psychological thrillers.
What surprised about the film was how incredibly French the film looked. It had a Nouvelle Vague style to it, Catherine Deneuve never tried to hide her Frenchness, the interior of the apartment she lived in looked remotely French as well, and that the film was shot in black and white also helped this impression. Even the imagery of the woman who fantasizes about being raped feels… somewhat French. All in all, focusing on the slow descent into delusion and craziness of one single character is a little bit one-sided, but I was fascinated by it. One cannot complain that the film is not suspenseful enough.
In the end, I too thought that the film was a classic. It’s completely different from “The Fearless Vampire Killers” and it made me wish Polanski had done more of these kinds of films, but instead he seems to have entirely become a mediocre Hollywood director.
Rosemary’s Baby is quite similar in being a thriller too. It just doesn’t have any of the Frenchness and is more a normal-type, but still really good and intense psycho thriller. :)